Page:The Archko Volume (1896).djvu/137

Rh restraining the liberty of the Nazarene. 'Scribes and Pharisees,' he would say to them, 'you are a race of vipers; you resemble painted sepulchres; you appear well unto men, but you have death within you.' At other times he would sneer at the alms of the rich and proud, telling them that the mite of the poor was more precious in the sight of God. Complaints were daily made at the prætorium against the insolence of Jesus.

"I was even informed that some misfortune would befall him; that it would not be the first time that Jerusalem had stoned those who called themselves prophets; an appeal would be made to Cæsar. However, my conduct was approved by the Senate, and I was promised a reinforcement after the termination of the Parthian war.

"Being too weak to suppress an insurrection, I resolved upon adopting a measure that promised to restore the tranquillity of the city without subjecting the prætorium to humiliating concession. I wrote to Jesus requesting an interview with him at the prætorium. He came. You know that in my veins flows the Spanish mixed with Roman blood — as incapable of fear as it is of weak emotion. When the Nazarene made his appearance, I was walking in my basilic, and my feet seemed fastened with an iron hand to the marble pavement, and I trembled in every limb as does a guilty culprit, though the Nazarene was as calm as innocence itself. When he came up to me he stopped, and by a signal sign he seemed to say to me, 'I am here,' though he spoke not a word.